Hurricane Katrina

 

Twenty years ago tomorrow, a terrible price was paid for a Republican administration's neglect of a life- saving disaster response agency:

Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, 2005, slamming directly into Louisiana before pummeling Mississippi and surrounding states. New Orleans saw the worst of the damage. Deadly floods inundated 80 percent of the city as levees and flood walls failed against torrential rain and storm surge.

The destruction was harrowing: More than 1,800 people died. Total damages, accounting for inflation, exceeded $200 billion.

Katrina’s impacts still linger today. The hurricane reshaped the South, fueling a widespread diaspora of disaster survivors into new areas that altered the economy and community connectedness. It also triggered a shift in disaster policy, prompting a reorganization of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and a more hands-on approach to preparation and resilience in the face of extreme weather.

However, experts say the Trump administration’s recent push to defund FEMA threatens to undo decades of progress—and they fear what could happen if another storm like Katrina hits soon...

Not just defund, but destroy FEMA, handing off national responsibility for disaster response to states unequipped for the cost and responsibility.  What is our latest incompetent Republican administration's response?

Hurricane Katrina was a landmark event for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, ushering in major reforms and serving as a key lesson that reverberates across the FEMA workforce 20 years later.

It’s no small thing, then, that some FEMA employees have invoked failures in the government’s response to Katrina to warn Congress and the public that changes under the Trump administration risk a similarly catastrophic scenario in the future.

More than 190 current and former FEMA staff members have now signed the “Katrina Declaration.” The letter, released publicly on Monday, pushes back against the administration’s changes and petitions for action from Congress. It’s addressed to the FEMA Review Council.

FEMA staff say the letter came together over the past two months. It was inspired by similar efforts at other agencies and further driven by a series of events, including catastrophic floods in Texas, that convinced staff to sign the statement.

This week’s 20th anniversary of Katrina’s landfall was an opportunity to highlight the real-world consequences of an underprepared FEMA, employees said.

“We haven’t had a major hurricane hit yet – that is something a lot of my colleagues believe we are not prepared for at this point,” one FEMA employee told Federal News Network. “Rather than wait until we see more devastation, we wanted to say something before it’s too late.”

Nearly three dozen of the named signatories are current FEMA employees. On Tuesday evening, FEMA put those staff members on paid administrative leave, according to the FEMA employee, who was granted anonymity to avoid further retaliation.

“We are alarmed by this but standing strong,” the employee said. “We know we did the right thing.”...

Yes, go ahead, put the ones who care about the mission to save lives and property on leave.  That comports with a regime that brooks no dissent, no science-based arguments, nothing that challenges their antediluvian, anti-science views.  As with the impact of the mass resignations of the leadership of the CDC this week, the ongoing authoritarian incompetence of the Malignant Fascist's regime is bound to result in unnecessary death and destruction.  But we're sure many soulful thoughts and prayers will be ushered forth at the right time.

(Photo:  water floods a neighborhood of New Orleans the day after Hurricane Katrina's landfall, August 29, 2005 / Smiley N. Pool, Dallas Morning News/ AP)